


The Enderhermit

by Runtbug5



Series: Enderhermit Universe [2]
Category: Hermitcraft RPF, Minecraft (Video Game), Songs of War (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Everyone Needs A Hug, Gen, Grian is a blacksmith, Grian is not a watcher, Minecraft championships, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Canon, Prime Songs, References to Evo SMP, References to Wynncraft, Something possibly going on in the Dream SMP?, Tired Xisumavoid (Video Blogging RPF), Watchers, World Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-15
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:05:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 17,568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27020146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Runtbug5/pseuds/Runtbug5
Summary: After leaving Ardonia with the other Enderknights, Grian thought they would never have to deal with the Watchers again. That was until there were rumors of worlds being attacked. He didn't think much of it until he saw who they were. (First chapter is a author's note, please read it)Contains spoilers for the end of Songs of War. Please watch/read Songs of War beforehand.
Relationships: Grian & Impulse & Rendog, Oliver Brotherhood & Charles | Grian & Viktor | Iskall85, Other Relationship Tags to Be Added, Xisumavoid (Video Blogging RPF) & Scott | Smajor1995 | Dangthatsalongname & LogicalGeekBoy
Series: Enderhermit Universe [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2122959
Comments: 28
Kudos: 72





	1. Author's note

This story is going to be cross-posted on Wattpad. This story is a crossover with Songs of War. To be able to understand the story I would highly recommend watching the show and reading the script as it will be taking place after the events of the series.

This author's note is going to be explaining a few things about the story that will help you understand it better.

I'm trying to balance how Minecraft works in-game with how it works in the series. This involves the characters that the youtube channels associated with and not the actual people themselves. I am also trying to add Minecraft lore to it. It might take a while for me to get the actual chapters posted because I mostly have the background and direction of the story but not the content of it. Please be patient and give me feedback and suggestions. Feel free to ask any questions, I will answer any I choose.

Notes

  * There were originally two worlds. All other worlds are a mixture of the two worlds. Not all worlds are an even split copy of the two worlds.
  * One of the two original worlds is called Hub World.
    * The other world is Ardonia
    * Most people are from Hub World and travel out but, there are a few people that come from the other worlds.
  * Mojang exists acting almost like the council of admins you see in other Hermitcraft stories.
    * The "developers" are a group of admins that monitor the coding of the worlds looking for new things being created and announce them.
      * Example: Developer Agnus sees that the overall nether coding is different from before and dives deeper. She sees that new biomes are starting to form in the nether.
  * Minecon/Minecraft Live exists as a meeting of owners, admins, and representatives of servers to discuss what is happening. The public portion of the event serves as letting the public know anything they need to know from the Minecon meeting and where the developers tell about the changes coming.
    * The event happens in Hub World.
  * People don't believe that Ardonia exists. Most believe the other worlds are just copies of Hub World but have changed drastically. Some worlds that are closer to being similar to Ardonia have myths and legends about its existence. Only a few worlds believe it exists. There is only one way to travel between Ardonia and other worlds
  * Crafting tables exist in all worlds but the two originals. Many of the Minecraft items came from Ardonia but, they work differently. For example: in Minecraft, beacons give you buffs while in Songs of War they allow you to teleport to others. If you have a beacon from Ardonia it will act like the ones in Songs of War. If you have one from any other world it will act like the ones in normal Minecraft
  * Respawn does exist in most worlds. The two main worlds don't have respawning so if you die, you die. There is a small chance in worlds that do have respawning that it could be permadeath. The only way to guarantee a respawn is to use a respawn anchor.
  * The usual way to travel to other worlds is by a portal (think about how the Hermits traveled from season 5 to season 6). When you travel to another world to other worlds the stuff you have doesn't transfer over (clothes do though, not armor). The only way to keep the stuff you have while traveling through worlds is by the second way of traveling.
  * Lag: It exists. How does it work? No one knows. People just know it causes themselves and the world to slow down. It is still caused by entities, redstone, and Mumbo.
  * People wear communicators on their wrists to talk to each other
  * Most YouTubers don't make videos but some of them do. Most that are well known are known because of events that are recorded like Minecraft Championship. Some of the Hermits are well known because they make some videos but the videos they do are like Grian's building videos or Mumbo's redstone tutorials. Some are well known for pictures they post on social media like Bdubs posting a picture of his cliff with a castle. Some YouTubers do video almost like a vlog.
  * Everyone's name is the name that they and others call themselves. Example: Smallishbeans goes by his real name Joel so his name would be something like Joel Beans while Mumbo Jumbo goes by his username Mumbo so he would be Mumbo Jumbo. (Should I do another author's note with people's names?)
  * Going to be mostly Grian-centric. His backstory, along with the other members of Evo SMP, has two backstories, the real backstory and the story they made up.
    * The real story will be revealed in the story
    * The made-up story is that they were originally born in Wynncraft and had adventure parties that they traveled around in. There was an accident that caused some of their friends (Taurtis) to die so they decided to create a world for them to live in. They called the world Evolution, Evo for short. They were attacked by a group of hackers called Watchers that ended up killing more of their friends. After this, they all went separate ways and joined other servers.



Notes on Ardonia

  * This is happening around 100 years-ish after the events of Songs of War
  * Senn is still the leader of the Voltaris Clan
    * He was also given Galleous's song and is now the person who can make obsidian armor
  * After the Second Great War, the Enderknights grew bigger than it had ever been before 
    * To deal with the size of the Enderknights, they travel around Ardonia in small groups
    * They try to help anyone in any way they can



**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would like to congratulate SugarsweetRomantic for being the first person to guess the series. I have changed and added more notes now that it's known.


	2. Prologue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The start of the fic! I hope you enjoy it and please leave any questions or comments. I read and try to respond to them all.  
> I would like to congratulate SugarsweetRomantic on being the first person to guess that the crossover series was Songs of War.  
> Just a little quick disclaimer, the minecraft SMP's that I mostly watch is Hermitcraft, X-Life, and Legacy. This is going to be a story that includes others but since I don't watch them, they might not be accurate.  
> If anyone has a YouTuber or a SMP they like, let me know. I have plans to try to include them in future chapters.  
> This chapter has many little Easter eggs in it so have fun trying to find them.
> 
> P.S. if you have not watch/read Songs of War, this is your last warning for spoilers.

Deep in the mountains in a world unknown to many, lies a hall of stories. The stories inside the hall tell of the stories and history of the world. This hall is called the Walls of Time. The Walls of Time account for the largest events of the world with many more events in the library underneath it. You might be familiar with some of the stories carved into the stone walls like the Great Wars. Others you might not be as familiar with. This tale starts out with one such story written upon the walls.

* * *

After the second great war the Enderknights worked to protect the people of Ardonia. The first Enderqueen Abigail did not rule over the land or return to the End like past Kings had. The land of Ardonia became a land of diplomacy with the Enderqueen only leading her Knights. 

The size of the Enderknights grew larger than it ever had before. Many of the Knights had small parties roaming Ardonia protecting the people from thieves and the undead. This had lasted for many generations of Enderknights.

About a hundred years after the Second Great War, the Enderknights were led by the Enderking Domrao. During this time there were some Enderknights who disagreed with how Ardonia was being ruled. They believed that the Enderking should go back to ruling over all of Ardonia. The current Enderking refused to go along with the rogue Knights.

The rogue Knights decided if their Enderking refused to give them what they want, they would have another to be their king. They all followed the Enderknight Sam Gladiator to take the Ender Crown and to take over Ardonia. They called themselves Watchers.

The Watcher Sam Gladiator was in a party with two other Enderknights: Taurtis Tatiz and Grian Voltaris. Taurtis sacrificed himself to let Grian Voltaris warn the Enderking of Sam Gladiator's scheme.

The Enderking ordered all those who were still loyal to him to stop the uprising. This is what started the Civil War among the Enderknights. Enderknights fought against the Watchers. Many died on both sides fighting against each other. This continued on until the Watchers succeeded in killing the King.

The war was thought to be over until the Ender Crown chose another king. This started the reign of Enderking Grian.

The Watcher Sam challenged Enderking Grian for the Crown. The battle was held in the End. The battle resulted in both of their deaths leaving both sides to be leaderless. The Ender Crown became lost during the battle.

At the loss of their leader, the remaining Enderknights sought out the remaining Watchers. They were only able to find a few as the Watchers disappeared, thought to never return. The Watchers did return though. They had rogue ardoni join the Watchers. They attempted to take the Prime Songs from where they were hidden in the End. The remaining Enderknights retrieved the Prime Songs before the Watchers could.

The Enderknights discovered somewhere to hide the Songs that they will never be found again. The cost to hide them was great. In order to hide the Songs where they will never be found, it cost the life of the remaining Enderknights. The Enderknights were given the title of Enderknights of Valor Order.

The Watchers remained in Ardonia with all who were once Enderknights losing their status of Knights. Bandits, outlaws, and outcasts of all species joined the Watchers in their attempt to take over Ardonia. The Enderknight Civil War ended with the loss of the Enderknights and the creation of a league seeking control over all Ardonia. Another period of no Enderknights had started but this time with no way for the Enderknights to return to Ardonia again.

_The Enderknight Civil War, 20th Wall of Time_

* * *

Two chroniclers are sitting in the library below the Walls of Time. Both are skimming through a book with stacks of books around them. One of the chroniclers closes his book before looking to the other.

"You really think you might have gotten some of the war wrong? We have been keeping record over the Enderknights for a while. Wouldn't you notice you got it wrong when you started writing," asked Noah Toon, a human chronicler wearing a green shirt with an orange vest over it.

The other chronicler looks up to Noah. "Well, it's possible. No one other than the Enderknights have been to the End. There were a lot of big events that happened there so I only had their word on what happened. We also still don't know how the Prime Songs are hidden. There are still a good number of Watchers that used to be been Enderknights and know how to get to the End. I know you noticed that there have been less around recently too. They aren't getting captured, they're just disappearing. I think they might have found something that might lead them to the Prime Songs," said GoofBall Mysterious, a chronicler from an unknown species. He sighs as he closes his book and reaches for another. 

"It's only been a few years since the war though. The songs are supposed to be unfindable. Wouldn't it take much longer if it is possible?"

"I don't know. All I know is that we won't have the Enderknights to stop them like we did before."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Were you able to find all the Easter eggs?
> 
> Please leave any questions or comments. All are appreciated.


	3. Minecraft Championship 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Who watched MCC today? The Lime Leches were doing so well until parkour. They still did really good though!  
> If any of you read the notes then you probably saw that one was about them recording videos. I changed this because I felt like it would cause problems later on in the story. The Hermits mostly live in Hermitcraft so adding that they still recorded made what will be coming seem less in the moment of what was happening or they would have stopped recording for a while. If it was only one or two that would be doing this it wouldn't be that big of a deal but because it would be most Minecraft YouTubers overall, it doesn't make sense. I would suggest going back to read the note to understand how video making will work.  
> Questions or comments are always welcomed.

Grian stands on the edge of the main End island looking out into the void. He holds on tightly to the Ender pearl in his hand. He had just told Ren and False that he was going ahead early to talk to his team. He looks at his communicator for the time. I need to go or else it might be too late to meet with them before the event. He thinks as he walks away from the edge. 

He opens up an enderchest that was left next to the main portal and grabs out a few shulker boxes. He places them down and starts emptying most of his inventory in them. He left an enderchest and a few Ender pearls in his inventory. He puts the shulker boxes back in the enderchest and walks back to the edge.

He grabs an Ender pearl while imagining Minecraft Championship. He then throws the pearl into the void. Grian shuts his eyes as he starts to feel the world swirl around him as he gets pulled by the Ender pearl.

As the swirling starts to stop Grian starts to open his eyes. Around him is the End, but it's a different End. There weren't any dragons as it was most likely gotten removed in case anyone got stuck in the End. The crystals on top of the towers were still there with the portal in the center activated. 

Grian goes over to the portal then jumps inside. Moments later he finds himself teleported to the center of the large open area that people usually teleport to. Looking around to see the people already there, he sees Pearl and walks over to her. "I guess we are the first ones here," he says to Pearl who jumped not seeing him.

"Grian don't scare me like that. Jimmy and Martyn should be here soon though," Pearl tells him. Grian sees Jimmy start to walk up to them with Martyn following shortly behind.

"We were just talking about guys," he says as the two others join them.

"We should take this conversation somewhere more… private," Martyn says while slightly gesturing to the slowly enlarging crowd around them. The group walked into an RV far from the plaza. They checked to make sure no one was around before they started while constantly checking to see they were still alone.

"Does everyone have their Song?" Grian places down the enderchest. Reaching inside, he grabs out what looks like a green glowing crystal, the Supporium Prime. While he does this, the others grab out their own. 

"Before we trade off the Songs, has anyone else been feeling something wrong with the End," Martyn asked, looking around at everyone to notice they were also concerned.

"I think… the End, our End, might be dying. I do not know for sure but that is my guess. I do not think it is the Nether though. Ever since Netherking Vulcannus came to power, the Nether and the End have somewhat had peace. Their king sees how important it is to have balance and prevent one realm from having too much power. If I had to guess at what is happening to our End, it would be that it is being attacked directly."

"You don't think it's who I think it is, do you?" Martyn looks around, "could the Watchers have attacked the End?"

All of a sudden Grian's communicator went off. He turns it on to see that Joel had sent a message to him.

_ <Smallishbeans whispers to Grian> Hey Grian, are you with Jimmy and Martyn? I can't find you guys anywhere. _

_ <Grian whispers to Smallishbeans> Ya, we will be right over! _

"As much as I wish we have time to talk more, Joel is starting to ask where we are. We should start switching off. Will anyone see Zee soon to be able to give him one of the Songs?"

"I can try to meet up with him. He's been doing a lot on his own recently," Martyn says taking the Motilium.

"I can give one to Mini. I'm meeting up with him with a group of people in Hub World." Jimmy takes the Supporium. 

"I guess that leaves the Agressium and Protisium," Grian said.

"Grian, you should take the Agressium. If something happens, that is the one that needs to be protected the most." Pearl grabs the Protisium and puts it in her inventory.

"Are you sure?" Grian takes the remaining Prime Song. He puts it in the enderchest and picks it up. "We should start heading back."

As the group starts heading back, Pearl leaves them to join her team. They see Joel inside the crowd looking for them. Jimmy calls him and Joel runs over. "Where were you guys? I've been looking everywhere for you!" 

"We got here early so we looked around some of the areas further out. I think they are about to start recording the event," Grian answered. The other three started talking but Grian started getting lost in his thoughts. The conversation they were talking about before Joel contacted him made him realize what is happening.

He had been thinking something was coming. He had been feeling a deep ache in his body for a while but had been passing it off as just overworking. Knowing that the others have also been feeling it he knows it isn't. It would make sense if something is happening to the End. He had heard that past Enderkings and queens have felt when the End was dying but never heard that other Enderknights being able to.  _ Maybe what is coming is worse than it was in the past. Most of the time when it happened it was because the Nether lost balance with the End.  _ He thought that he might just be overthinking it. He decided that he should think about it later because the championship was going to start soon.

"You're a tough guy Jim," Joel says. Jimmy and Martyn start laughing while Grian is confused at what they were talking about.

"I am sorry, I just got lost in my thoughts, but what is going on," Grian inquired, having no idea of what they were talking about. The others just laughed and tried explaining what happened. Grian was even more confused so they tell him not to worry about it. They continued talking until all their communicators started buzzing.

_ Is everyone on your team ready? _

_ Yes No _

"Are you guys ready," Grian asks while clicking yes on his communicator.

"I'm ready. We can't come tenth," Jimmy says.

"My lordship depends on it," says Martyn.

"Well, we have been predicted to be tenth. I was looking it up and got sad so I left," Joel tells the rest of the team.

"We need to make sure we don't come last. Lordships are on the line!" Everyone starts laughing.

"I feel like we are just going to start calling each other by Lord's," Grian jokes.

The Minecraft Championship starts and they run in to get to their booth. They started out playing Sky Battle and continue playing other mini-games. They ended by playing Sands of Time. Grian looks at his communicator to see what their score is.

"Guys, we got second in Sands of Time! We got eighth! We are Lord's," Grian excitedly yells causing some of the people around them from other teams to look at the Pink Parrots cheering for getting eighth. 

The dodgeball game started between the Blue Bats and the Green Guardians. Grian and the rest of his team all went to get flags to support the Bats. "You can do it Ren and False!" cheered Grian. The Guardians won the first two rounds almost assuring their win. The third round ended with both teams having two members on both sides. The Blue Bats shot twice getting both of the Guardians. After that, the Blue Bats won two more times taking the win of the game. 

Everyone got teleported outside of the arena. The Blue Bats teleport on top of the stage with the Minecraft Championship crowns. Everyone congratulated the Bats before heading off to the portal to teleport them back to their world. 

"So… are we when are we going to get our lordships?" asked Jimmy as they were walking towards the portal.

"We can figure some time to go get them when we're all free to go to Hub, maybe sometime next week?" Joel answered. "I have to get back to X-Life to work on a build for Callum. It's been nice to meet you guys and I'll see you later Jimmy," he walks through the portal and teleports out.

The other three all look at each other before walking away from the portal. "At least we don't have to explain to Joel why we aren't going through the portal," Jimmy sighed as they started walking into a cave far from everything else in the world. They walked further into the cave until they reached the stronghold of the world. They followed the lit path they created a few months ago when they first found it. Once they reached the portal they all jumped in.

Once they are on the other side, they walk off the obsidian platform to where the portal in the center of the island is. Grian dropped the enderchest and grabbed a few ender pearls before picking the chest back up. "The ender pearls we have from Ardonia are starting to get low. This might be the last time we can swap the songs around. I am giving you guys some extra so you have the chance to give them to Mini and Zee." Grian hands the two Enderknights a few pearls. "I have to wait for Pearl to get here to give her an ender pearl so don't wait for me to go."

Grian watches as Jimmy and Martyn both throw an ender pearl into the void and disappear in a cloud of ender particles. He had to wait a few minutes before Pearl showed up. Grian hands her one before she heads to the edge of the End island to throw her pearl into the void.

Grian walks past the obsidian towers over to the edge and looks down into the void. He grabs the last ender pearl out of his inventory and throws it into the void. He concentrates on thinking about Hermitcraft. He feels the familiar pull that comes with the ender pearl before he also disappears leaving behind a trail of ender particles.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hoped you enjoyed! I'm trying to write the chapters longer to be more of the length of this chapter so I hope you can be patient with them.  
> At the end when Gian gave them all ender pearls, they all do have a small supply of them but Grian has a few more than the rest of them. They used their own to get their songs to MCC. Their personal supply of ender pearls are mostly for if something goes wrong, they can escape with the song.


	4. The Knight in the Cave

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry there was a long break in-between this chapter and the last. I didn't have school today (Nevada Day is on Halloween so we get the Friday before off) but was trying to do as much school work ("and AP Calc is so fun" Run says jokingly) so I wouldn't have any this weekend because I got my wisdom teeth out today (not fun). It also doesn't help that I was drawing instead of writing but... oh well.  
> If you read the notes in the first chapter you might remember that one was talking about a meeting of admins. If you were paying attention to what the last chapter was, it was MC Championship 9 which is less than a month before Minecraft Live. This meeting will have as many nods to other Minecraft YouTubers as I can. If anyone has any YouTubers they want to be mentioned in the story, please tell me and I will consider them. Please keep in mind that the meeting is more for server owners and admins with a few who know a lot about their server who are acting as representatives for it. I am also willing to do certain people being representatives of a group like, if this was a few years ago, having Thinknoodles or DanTDM be representatives for the modes community because of their mod showcases.  
> If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions please let me know.

_"Xelqua," Grian calls out to his dragon. Xelqua runs over to Grian giving him the chance to jump on. Grian holds onto the scales of Xelqua as he takes off into the air._

Grian woke up with a gasp of air. He had been having that same nightmare, along with others, for weeks. He can still hear the scream Taurtis cried right before he died. He gets out of his bed while grabbing his netherite armor and elytra and puts them on. He grabs a shulker box filled with his tools and walks out of the door of the mansion to see it's still in the middle of the night. He walks over to his hobbit-hole instead of flying so he doesn't wake Scar who is currently sleeping in Larry the Snail.

He enters his old base and walks over to one of the chests. He pulls out a couple of chorus fruit and classes the chest. He walks back outside through the doorway that leads to the hidden outdoor area. Going into one of the corners of the small cliffs, he eats one of the fruit causing him to teleport into a cave on the other side of the stone wall. 

The cave was filled with anvils, furnaces, grindstones, and lava pools. On one end of the cave, there is an enderchest with a couple of undyed shulker box next to it. He walks over and opens one of the shulkers to see it full of different ones and diamonds. While reaching in he knocks over the other shulker causing everything inside to fall out. 

He was about to pick the items up until he saw what had fallen out. Scattered all over the floor are iron knives with all particles that resemble explosions coming off of them. In the center of all the knives is a diamond sword that has similar but different particles coming off of it and has a slight glow. These weapons are what got him recognized as loving explosions.

The Enderknights had a few Knights who were enchanters or apprentices to ones. He would get them to enchant the weapons he made. The knives were throwing knives with a simple exploding enchantment. When they were thrown at something or someone they would explode. The sword outmatched all the knives combined and used to be his main weapon. He spent weeks in the forge creating it and got a strong enchantment placed on it. Grian calls the sword "Dreamslayer '' and with its enchantment can cause whatever it hits to explode. While the knives are one-time use, the sword isn't exploding itself and if it was caught in an explosion it has a strong resistance enchantment placed on it.

Grian picks up the sword and runs his hand down the blade his hand reaches the hilt where he runs his thumb over a fancy engraving of _GV_ in the blade just above it. This was how he marked the weapons and tools he makes. 

He hasn't used his sword or knives since he was in Wynncraft. Using a sword that doesn't look like the default sword from the crafting tables wasn't out of place there. They were also one of the, if not, the only, world that knows of Ardonia's existence. The enchantments on the blades were also different from the ones in the other worlds. While most people can just walk up to an enchanting table if they have some lapis and after they have done some mining or fighting mobs, the people who enchant in Ardonia took years to learn how to enchant.

Grian also noticed it's the same with other things. He was taught how to be a blacksmith from a young age from how to prepare the wood for the hilt at a crafting table to how to forge the blade against an anvil. Now all someone has to do to get a sword is throw a stick and a couple of diamonds on a crafting table to get one.

Grian puts the blades back into the shulker box and sits down leaning against it. He starts dozing off until he hears his communicator go off.

_Goodtimeswithscar experienced kinetic energy_

<Xisuma> you ok Scar

<ZombieCleo> Who dareth disturb the rest of the undead

<joehillssays> The moon is still high causing the undead to rise and walk

<ZombieCleo> I shall curse whoever awoke the undead

<Joehillssays> She would and it would be a mighty curse

<Zedaph> You guys just made me wake up on the wrong side of the bed :(

<Tango> There's a right side? You always seem to be in a killing mood no matter what side you wake up on 

<Zedaph> Thanks for reminding me

_Tango was slain by Zedaph_

<Tango> I'm good

<ZombieCleo> I shall curse all of you

<Xisuma> You guys can go back to sleep I'm going to check on Scar

<Grian> Scar is staying in Larry, I can check on him. I will let you know if anything is wrong.

<Xisuma> thanks G

Grian closes his communicator and stands up. He eats a chorus fruit and teleports outside. He flies over to the snail and climbs the ladder. As he opens the door, he hears a groan up above him. He sighs in relief as he climbs the ladder to see Scar laying in his bed. Grian walks up next to the bed and gently shakes Scar. "Are you awake Scar?" he asks quietly.

Scar opens his eyes, "Ya, what are you doing here?"

"You died and didn't respond."

"Yes I did," Scar sits up and grabs his communicator. He turns it in and shows Grian. "It's right… I forgot to hit send," he realizes as he sees the message sitting in the writing bar.

"I will let X know you are okay," Grian turns his communicator on.

<Grian whispers to Xisuma> Scar is ok

<Xisuma whispers to Grian> Thanks G

Grian turns off his communicator and walks over to Scar's respawn anchor. The respawn anchor is unlit. "Your respawn anchor is empty. Do you want me to refill it for you?

"Ya, thanks. There should be some glowstone downstairs."

Grian heads down the ladder and looks around the room filled with barrels, chests, and shulkers. _And Mumbo makes fun of me for having an unorganized storage system._ He starts opening a barrel next to the door and looks inside. Not seeing any glowstone, he moves into the shulker next to it. Grian continues opening and closing barrels looking for a few prices of glowstone. He steals Scar's door while looking in-between a chest and a shulker. 

After going through a few more, he finally found a few prices of glowstone in a barrel. "I found some Scar," he tells Scar as he goes up the ladder."

"What took you so long?"

"Your storage system. It is worse than mine and I get told that mine is awful." Grian walks to the respawn anchor and fills it with glowstone.

"Thanks, sorry for waking you G."

"It is okay, I was already awake," Grian brushed off. "Why were you awake in the first place? I do not take you as a sleep flyer."

"Can a man just take a late-night flight in peace? Actually… I was working on Scar X, the Great Dig, and didn't realize how late it was. When I started dozing off while I was building I stopped and tried flying home. Long story short, I closed my eyes for one second and didn't realize I flew too much to the right or that Iskall's giant tree was right in front of me. Now, why are you awake because I know I woke people up. The conversation in the chat is enough to realize my crash has caused Cleo to try to curse me, Joe to try to imitate Shakespeare, and Zedaph to kill Tango. You also said you were already awake so…" Scar probed.

"It is nothing… just a bad dream. I guess I am just kinda homesick for my world." _I should not have said that_ Grian thought right after mentioning his world.

"You know you can leave the server for a few days to visit your homeworld G."

"It is not that simple. You know how the old world I was in before Hermitcraft was attacked?"

"Ya, I remember hearing you mention that when you first came here."

"Well, the people that attacked us were from the same world as us. They believed that we died so our world believes we all died. A-... Wynncraft does not have people traveling between other worlds often if at all, so as long as we do not return we should be safe."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bring up any…"

"It is okay," Grian cuts him off. "I should get back home. You know… if there was mycelium everywhere, only mushrooms grow on mycelium and there is not much of a chance to hit a mushroom while flying," joked Grian as he hurried downstairs and out the door frame launching a rocket as he jumped off the ladder. 

He laughs as he hears Scar call his name as he tries to hurry to catch Grian. Behind him, Grian hears a faint yell at him saying, "Where's my door!?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I made a drawing of one of Grian's knives.  
> https://drive.google.com/file/d/10zW006ilHaKaxPVL6phbSL6EwBFdXeok/view?usp=drivesdk  
> I didn't want the knife to be like a normal Minecraft sword but short but because they are disposable, I wanted them to be simple in design. I'm still trying to create a design for Dreamslayer.


	5. Error in the End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took a while to get this chapter out. I was planning on doing it last night but I fell asleep while reading it through one last time.  
> Thank you to everyone who has read so far. This story almost has 350 hits!  
> If you read the author's note at the beginning of the last chapter you know I'm looking for Youtubers to mention during the meeting. PLEASE give some. So far I haven't had anyone give me any and I don't want the meeting to be small.  
> As always, questions and comments are always welcomed.

Scott sighs as he leans back in his chair. He has been trying to keep track of everything that has happened in his servers the past year. He's been organizing everything to use during the yearly Mojang meeting. He became the admin for X-Life and works with Noxite to run Minecraft Championship.

He found some problems with some errors that happened in MCC and lag in X-Life. Nothing too serious compared to what it could be. He has heard rumors of people going into whitelisted or solo worlds.

Looking back at the past coding once more he turns his monitors off and heads outside. He grabs a warp scroll from a backpack in his inventory and thinks about spawn. Scott closes his eyes while the world spins around him. He opens his eyes to come face to face with the waystone. 

"Hey Scott," he hears from behind him. He turns around to see Jimmy walking over and waving.

"Hey Jimmy, how's the shop going?" He says walking with Jimmy over to their shared pet shop.

"Zome of the pets have been adopted. Are you excited for the Mojang meeting?"

Scott raises an eyebrow, "Really Jimmy, it's just going to be a meeting talking about any problems happening in the worlds. Nothing really to get excited over."

"I don't know, none of the world's I've been from attended," Jimmy says shrugging. Scott and Jimmy walk into New Beginnings Animal Adoption. Scott goes behind the counter to grab the bag of pet food. He scoops some out and hands it to Jimmy. Jimmy walks over to the door with the sign reading 'Starburst' and walks in to feed him.

"I almost forgot about that. You're originally from Wynncraft right," Scott asked. I almost forgot about that. He probably doesn't know what the meetings even are!

"Ya, it's a lot more secluded than other worlds. You don't get travelers to and from Wynn often," Jimmy says scratching the back of his head.

"Part of that might be because Wynncraft isn't well known for being… very welcoming from what I heard." Jimmy shrugs while Scott goes over to one of the other doors. He looks inside to see the animal is gone. He goes over to the other doors and sees the same thing. "We might have to get some more pets soon. The rest have been adopted." 

"Do you want me to get more pets or…" Jimmy's voice gets weak until he stops talking. Scott turns around to look at him only to see Jimmy swaying before he starts to fall.

"Jimmy!" Scott rushes over to catch him to prevent him from hitting the ground. He checks over Jimmy trying to see what caused him to pass out. There isn't anything noticeable, like bloodlines or a bit on the head, and when he checked Jimmy's vitals on his communicator, it showed that nothing is wrong. Scott notices that Jimmy had started to stir so he set him down. "Jimmy? Jimmy, are you alright?" he asks with concern filling his voice.

"Yea… what happened?" Jimmy asks, still dazed with what happened. He slowly stands up while supporting himself against the wall.

"You passed out, I'm going to message for someone to come check on you." Scott turns his communicator on and pulls up the chat. He ignores all the previous messages to start writing his.

<Smajor1995> Anyone free to come to New Beginnings Animal Adoption

<Smallishbeans> Not interested in buying an animal

<Smajor1995> It's not to sell any pets

<Smajor1995> Jimmy passed out

<Smallishbeans> I will come to help my Brother of Jeremy

<Ldshadowlady> Ignore Joel and his cult. I can help, I'll be there shortly

<Smallishbeans> Jeremyism is not a cult!

Scott sighs as he turns his communicator off. "Lizzie's coming. Do you know why or what caused you to pass out?"

"... No," Jimmy says hesitantly. It was obvious that Jimmy knows why or at least has an idea. Scott decides not to push him further unless he finds out more. Scott is suddenly pulled from his thoughts when Lizzie comes through the door.

"What exactly happened?" Lizzie asks while walking over to Jimmy.

"We came into the shop to feed the animals. Jimmy went to fed Starburst. We were talking about getting more pets until he fainted in the middle of talking. I did a quick check right after he passed out but I couldn't find anything wrong. I need someone to be with him so I can go and check his code to see if anything in there caused it.

Lizzie forces Jimmy to sit down, "you can go check, I'll let you know if anything happens while you are gone."

Scott grabs a warp scroll and teleports to the waystone at his base. He goes to his computer and turns it on. He finds Jimmy's code and looks for anything wrong. Nothing happened to his code when he fainted. Just as he was about to head back when he couldn't find anything, he gets the idea to look through the world code to see anything that could have caused it. He stops once he gets to the code for the End. Its code has one minute where it didn't transmit any information. That shouldn't be possible. It's as if the End just stopped existing.

He looks at the time the End's code stopped and notices that it happened at the time that Jimmy passed out. It doesn't make sense though. Why would the End affect Jimmy? He goes back to looking at Jimmy's code to look for anything to connect the two. He pauses when he looks closer at Jimmy's code. There are parts in his code that don't belong in a normal person. It would make sense for parts to be slightly different because he came from Wynncraft but, the change is bigger than he thought. Before he had the chance to look further he got a message on the computer.

LogicalGeekBoy -> Smajor1995

Hey Scott, can you ask Fwhip if he can allow me to open some coding. He forgot to give me permission to open the codes of people. Pearl was working on the portal in the fantasy district until she blacked out and was killed by a zombie. I helped her after she respawned but I'm trying to find why she fainted in the first place.

Two people both passing out at about the same time could just be a coincidence but knowing that both come from the same world and one of them has just been found with weird code, he doesn't think so. Scott messages Fwhip to come before he responds to Logic.

Smajor1995 -> LogicalGeekBoy

I just messaged Fwhip so he should be there soon. Jimmy fainted so I'm looking over his code to find out why. If it's the same thing that happened to Jimmy then I don't think there will be much to find. I did notice that at about the same time that he fainted, the End's coding disappeared for a minute. While nothing happened directly to Jimmy at that minute, I did find his coding might be slightly broken. If I'm looking at it correctly, Jimmy is somehow connected to the End and when it stopped for the minute, he fainted.

Someone knocked on the door before opening it and walking in. "What's wrong? Is this about what happened to Jimmy?" Fwhip asks.

"No, it's about Legacy. Logical message me saying he needs to open coding for people. When you made him admin you forgot to give him the ability."

Fwhip grabs a warp scroll and teleports out of the room. Scott waits a few minutes before he receives another message.

LogicalGeekBoy -> Smajor1995

Fwhip got here and we are looking at the code. Pearl has the same problem with her code.

Thinking about the history of the two, it makes sense that they would be different. Both are from the same world that isn't Hub and have been together with the same people in other worlds. A thought suddenly hits him as he pulls up another admin's name to message him. He writes a quick message to the admin before trying to find other people. All people that came from the same world.

Evo. A world that has been home to a group of people and been completely destroyed. There is no record of it anywhere. They only knew of its existence by the people who lived there. The people all came from Wynncraft, a world that had little to no contact with all the other worlds making it near impossible to ask anyone else about the world. With the little evidence of it existing, Evo was thought to be fake. It wasn't until a world traveler came from Wynncraft and confirmed what they said that they believed Evo's existence.

He tries to search through people in the worlds only to be stopped because he only has access to the people in his worlds. Sighing, Scott opens the notes he has been taking for the meeting of the admins.

* * *

All Grian felt was pain. He felt like he was on fire. Probably not too far off as he is laying on the bedrock in the Nether.

He was working on breaking a hole through the bedrock when he felt a sharp pain right when he lit a piece of TNT. The pain caused him to get light-headed and pass out. He couldn't take cover under the trapdoor causing him to take the blast of the explosion. The explosion made him covered with cuts. He slowly becomes conscious as most of the pain slowly fades.

Grian lifts his sweater to see where the pain came from. He looks at the purple-tinted scar carved into his chest. The scar was some sort of design that was etched. He pulls his sweater back down and closes his eyes while he lays on the bedrock.

After laying on the bedrock for a while he hears rockets coming towards him. He hears someone land and rushes over to him calling to see if he is alright. He opens his eyes to see Xisuma crouched next to him with relief in his eyes as he sees Grian is alive.

"You had everyone worried. I got a message from Scott Major to check on you and you didn't respond to any messages in chat. Impulse said you were at your mansion in the upside-down so I flew over here as fast as I could."

"I am fine. When I was getting under the trapdoor to get ready to place a piston, I accidentally placed a TNT in the pistons place. When it exploded it caused the other one to also explode and I got caught in the blast. Why did Scott ask about me?" Grian felt he might know why.

"I don't know, all he said was to check on you and didn't say anything else. I didn't think to ask him why," Xisuma says laughing slightly nervously.

"So… Scott is psychic?" Grian asks jokingly. "I heard from Jimmy that they have witches." He walks over to his communicator he left sitting on top of a shulker box. He opens it to see a ton of messages from the other Hermits asking if he's okay. He sends a quick message to let them know everything is fine. "When you head back to your base, can you ask Impulse if he has any extra TNT?"

"No, we should head back to the cowmercial district. Even if you didn't die, being caught in a TNT explosion isn't good." Xisuma lightly scolds.

"Most of the blast was taken by my armor. I am fine," Grian protests.

"Should I ask Stress if you should be working?"

"... Fine."

The pair heads back to the main area of the Nether by flying over the bedrock. When they get back Stress is at the other side knowing that X would make Grian return after worrying them all. She pulls Grian with her to a boat and starts to head to her base while rambling on about traveling through the Nether and flying are some of the last things that Grian should be doing. He zones out while she talks about how unsafe exploding TNT in the Nether is.  _ The TNT is nothing compared to the pain from before.  _ He was brought back to reality by Stress pulling his hand and dragging him into her base.

Grian sits down as Stress goes over to her chests looking for supplies. She walks back to Grian carrying a healing potion. "Wot happened?" she asks while giving Grian the potion.

"I was bedrock breaking and I accidentally placed an extra TNT." Grian drinks the potion causing the cuts to fade.

"You need to be more careful!" she huffed. They continue to talk while the potion takes effect. Grian heads back to his base once it starts becoming dark.

Once he gets to his base, he takes his armor off and lays in bed. He has been scared of what's happening ever since the accident started. When Xisuma told him that Scott contacted him, he knew something happened to Jimmy. He doesn't understand why he would have felt pain from his old wound. He knows he should be fine as long as the End is. Realization and dread hit him as he understands what that means. Something  _ is _ happening to the End. Something he might be powerless to stop.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I drew Grian's sword Dreamslayer! Just to let you know, there is a good chance I might remake the sword because I don't really like how I designed it but, it would still have parts of this original design as a part of it.
> 
> https://drive.google.com/file/d/12gNtsLiS8PXy9_dk87tIl0dwVFEF2aSm/view?usp=drivesdk
> 
> I would like to ask again for people to be in the meeting of the admins. Sorry if I am being pushy about it.


	6. The Meeting of the Admins

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who has been patient since the last chapter.  
> I am really sorry I haven't posted in over a month. I haven't abandoned the story. I have had a mixture of writers block and being busy whenever I was trying to write. I have midterms the rest of this week before I have winter break.  
> If you remember, I've been trying to get you guys to give input for people to make easter eggs of. This is the chapter with it. Thank you everyone who suggested... Dream and Technoblade. That's... that's it... no one else...  
> I would also like to mention that the main series I watch are Hermitcraft with a lot of the Hermits (so much has happened with the turf war); Legacy with Fwhip (when he was a part of the server), MythicalSausage, Zloy, PearlescentMoon, and the other Legates every once in a while(season two!!! I was sad that the first season started getting a lull during the summer when some of the members were becoming inactive); and last but not least, X-Life with mostly Fwhip. I'm mentioning this to let you know if I got any of their personalities wrong... I'm sorry.  
> I'll try to get the next chapter done as soon as possible.  
> Please leave comments and suggestions.

Xisuma walks into a room that has a large table with people sitting around it. Xisuma recognizes many of the admins in the room. With the number of worlds growing larger by the day with more admins each day Mojang decided to split the meeting into multiple. 

As he walks to his seat, Scott Major walks up to him with another behind him with glasses and suspenders. Xisuma doesn't know why but the other admin also seems familiar. "You're Xisuma Void, right? How's Grian?" Scott asks with concern on his face.

"He's good. After you sent the message I found him after he blew himself up. How did you know to check on him in the first place?"

"I didn't message about him blowing up. Was anyone with Grian when he blew himself up?" 

"No. He was deep in the Nether alone. Why?" Xisuma questions confused. Why was it important for someone to see him get blown up? When he got there it was obvious what happened. Scott opens his mouth about to answer him until the admin behind him interrupts him.

"We should finish this conversation later. The meeting is about to start." Xisuma looks around to see people taking their seats. They find a few seats in their section and sit down. While they started to sit down the other admin turned to X. "I almost forgot to introduce myself. I'm a Logical Geek, the admin of Legacy." That's why he seems familiar. He remembers hearing Grian mentioned knowing someone in the world.. Before anyone could say anything else, one of the Mojang admins stands up.

"Thank you for coming. Recently many problems have arisen. Many of you might have heard rumors that player count of worlds that are whitelisted or only have one person in them have an increase and no evidence of people coming through the portals."  _ That's impossible, _ Xisuma thinks. With portals being the only way to travel between worlds, there should be something that proves they'd been used. That's not even taking the fact that those worlds are almost impossible to get into. "There's also a concern about a group of people not from Hub World."

"Is that why I'm here?" questions a bald man with a brown shirt and one arm slightly armored. "I guess it was kinda pointless for me to go to meetings to stop hackers nearly every year." 

"I think the reason you were attending those meetings was so you would stop using hacks in other worlds. There is a reason why you are  _ permanently _ banned from my world. They probably put you there because you don't understand how hard it is to deal with hackers and your world's owner doesn't come to the meetings. You get sent as your world's representative." stated a man wearing a ninja mask.

"Hause is busy making patches and keeping our world running, sorry we don't have a large team of admins that help keep things running Hypixel. I also happen to know more about what's happening in our world to know what I should and shouldn't say. What happens in 2B2T is our business."

"Alright that's enough," the Mojang admin interrupts to prevent the argument from going further. "To answer your question Fit, yes," the Mojang admin confirmed. "Your world has a majority of its inhabitants being native to your world. You know more about how people act who aren't from Hub World."

"Is that also why I'm in this meeting compared to one that involves more oh… I don't know… combat?" the piglin hybrid wearing a cape and crown scoffed at the admin. Xisuma recognizes the piglin hybrid as Techno Blade, he was chosen as the representative of PVP.

It is weird for a representative of a community to be a part of a meeting that is about a specified problem that doesn't involve their community. They are usually someone big like when Think Noodles or Dan Diamond were representatives for the modded community years back. 

Another admin with a green hoodie and white mask burst out laughing. Xisuma hears Techno mutter "stop Dream," while elbowing the admin.

"That and… one other reason. This brings up our next point. Some of you might have been aware but recently there was a problem with the End. We still haven't figured out what happened or what caused it. All we know is a few days ago, something happened to the end to make it appear as if it didn't exist." Xisuma sees Scott and Logic look at each other with worry filling their faces as the admin explains. "While it was happening, the people in the End were affected by some type of 'crash' until it ended. We believed that they were the only ones affected by it at least, that is what we thought."

The admin pulls up some coding on the screen of a player during the accident. Xisuma recognizes the people. Jimmy Solidarity and Pearlescent Moon. He turns over to look at Scott who turns to look at him and gives a small nod. This is what Scott was trying to warn him about. Now Xisuma knows why he's here.

"Both of these people were involved with another… concern a few years ago." No. "The problem was labeled 'Evo' as that is what the concern was about.  _ No.  _ The admin alternates his looks towards him and, "Hypixel, Xisuma, both of you were some of the admins that were part of dealing with Evo. The other admins have either retired or aren't admins coming to the meeting. We believe this might be a connection to it." Xisuma's breath hitch while his face goes pale.  _ Please not this again,  _ he pleads in his mind.

"What's Evo?" asks Dream. The Mojang admin looks at Xisuma.

"Xisuma Void, you are probably the best to explain Evo," the admin answers, causing most of the people in the room to look at him. He glances over to Hypixel to see him staring into the corner of the room trying to avoid being a part of the mess waiting to happen. He would do the same if he could 

He hesitates. Xisuma knows that the others need to know what happened but he's worried about how they will react to it. "Have all of you heard of the world Wynncraft?" he asks and looks around seeing most of the people nod yes but a few nod no. "The world isn't well known. We've only learned of its existence years ago. It's a world that's filled with native people to the world and is well known for unusual types of magic." Before he could continue he hears Techno snort.

"Magic? Really? Magic doesn't exist." The room goes silent with only a soft 'yes it does' being said by one of the other admins.

"Anyways," Xisuma says continuing, "a few years ago one of my world's members, Mumbo Jumbo, approached me about a new friend of his joining our world. That's how I got introduced to Grian who is well known for his building and for teaching others how to improve their building. When we switched worlds he joined us and became part of our group. When the next meeting of the admins arrived, I was put in a group to deal with a problem that came up shortly after the last meeting and had been undealt with for almost a year.

"That problem was Evo. A group of people appeared out of nowhere claiming to be natives to an isolated world before they moved to another world that ended up being completely destroyed. The admins were able to find the world that they claimed to be native to, a world that is called Wynncraft. A world that is very closed off and doesn't have any admins."

"What do you mean by a world not having admins? Don't all worlds have one even if they aren't in the world themselves or even interact with the world?" asks Dream. 

The main admin shook his head and answered the question, "no, we've found worlds that have large populations of natives to the world and exist without any admins or even aware of other worlds even existing." Xisuma never really realized that. It makes sense though because if they don't have an admin they don't have portals.

"My world was similar to that but we have one person with admin abilities. He was self discovered and taught. His abilities are mostly used to prevent our world from destroying itself from the hacking. We never heard about the other worlds until our world was discovered by them and we agreed to work with them." Fit says.

"It isn't normal for people to appear from these worlds into one of ours. What caused even more problems was the world they said they traveled from." Hypixel says taking over the story. "The world they were from was said to have been destroyed. They called the world Evo but, there wasn't anything that proved the world existed. We only stopped looking into it after we found another group of people from Wynncraft."

"Back to the reason for this meeting," the admin says, trying to get back on topic. "We currently have three members in servers and three in worlds on their own. We were able to connect two of the members in worlds with others to the End problem, in a way."

Xisuma's stomach dropped. He has a feeling he knows which two he's talking about. He glances over at Scott and Logic. They both have a look of realization. He didn't realize they continued talking until Scott elbows him.

"Sorry, I got a lot in thought," he says, rubbing the back of his helmet.

"The member of your world," the Mojang admin says carefully, "Grian Xelqua. Do you know if anything happened to him during the time that the End had problems?" The time that the End had problems was when… when Grian got exploded by TNT.

Xisuma's face paled at the realization that something did happen. If Grian ignited TNT before he fainted he would have been caught in the blast. "When the End had problems… Grian got injured from TNT. He was alone in the Nether."

The room stayed silent. It isn't enough to prove it did or didn't happen to him but, the odds weren't in his favor of it not happening. "With how single worlds are run, the admins of them won't have anything to contribute. We don't know what happened to the other three."

"It's best to prepare for the worst case. We should assume that if two people had problems out of three, the third probably had it happen too," Hypixel concluded.

"We've decided this issue needs to be looked into deeper. Everyone here will be required to attend future meetings." After the Mojang admin finished the room filled with tension. 

Xisuma sighs as he leans back in his chair. He was worried this might happen. He's getting a sense of deja vu. He looks over the other admins in the room. Hypixel seems to be taking the news the same as Xisuma. The same can't be said about the others. Scott and Logic were mostly confused at everything. The two representatives and the green hooded admin have a different outlook.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN MORE MEETINGS! I'M NOT EVEN AN ADMIN! YOU'RE LUCKY I EVEN MADE IT TO  _ THIS _ MEETING!" Techno snarled out. 

"Look, we know this isn't the most ideal…"

Dream scoffed, "ideal? I have plans already made for the next few _months_ that I'll have to cancel because of this _'not_ _ideal'_ situation. I'm not even admin over any of them."

"And that's why we picked you," the admin answered ignoring their outburst. "Everyone in this meeting is here for a reason. Fit one of the most knowledgeable about people outside Hub World. Even if his knowledge doesn't extend to Wynncraft, he is the best we got." Fit huffs out a sarcastic thanks which is mostly ignored.

"Hypixel and Xisuma were part of the original group monitoring them with Xisuma being an admin over one of them. Logical and Scott are both admins over two others. Scott is also one of the people over Minecraft Championship, an event that  _ four _ of them go to. This brings us to why we have Techno and Dream. Both can watch the group without suspicion."

Techno looks over at Dream, "I'm not sure if I follow."

"I think I know what he means," Xisuma says. "When we were tasked last time to watch them, they knew we were watching them. They didn't trust any admin, especially the ones over them. They won't suspect you or Dream to be watching them. Even if Dream is an admin, he isn't known for being an admin. Many people don't even know he is one."

"Wait… what do you mean by not trusting the admins over them?" Scott asks with concern.

"I'm not sure of your members but ever since the accident, every time the annual meetings occur Grian acts differently and is wary of me," Xisuma explains. The last thing they need right now is for the group to stop trusting them. "I can even tell that he acts slightly different around me compared to the other Hermits. And I mean that as in general when nothing important is happening."

"But we also hardly ever see any of them," Dream says. "Wouldn't it be better for people who see them more often to keep an eye?"

"You both see them at Minecraft Championship. The championship is the most commonplace for more than one of them to see each other. Four of the six in the group are a part of it and the only people in this room that go to it are the two of you and Scott. Scott is one of the coordinators compared to the two of you being contestants." The Mojang admin turns over to Fit. "We need you to…"

Xisuma spaces out. This was the last thing he wanted to happen at the meeting. He didn't know how much time passed until everyone around him started to stand up. He headed back to the portal with Scott and Logic in silence. He could tell the other two were trying to let all the information sink in. All Xisuma could think about is one thing

_ How am I going to explain it to the others?  _

**_How will I explain this to Grian?_ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... I mentioned that I was thinking about redesigning Dreamslayer. I was originally thinking that I probably wouldn't have it until a few more chapters. Well... it's been a month... and I may have made the new design.
> 
> https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RQZ7hK7JdY_94_PnvqxWimYlnrMQLeWz/view?usp=drivesdk
> 
> Do you prefer the old or new design?


	7. Bruised Hands

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's been a while since I last posted. Probably don't expect another chapter for a bit. I wrote most of this instead of doing homework, mainly calculus, and i should be focusing on it.

The stone walls of Grian's hidden cave echo with the sound of metal pounding as he strikes his netherite hammer onto the glowing orange iron on his anvil. The usual sweater that he wears lays on top of a chest on one side of the cave leaving the scars that it usually hides in plain sight to anyone in the cave. He glances up at the clock hanging in an idea frame on the wall. He still has a few hours before the sun rises.

He didn't bother trying to go to sleep. He knew after the stressful day he had he wouldn't be falling asleep anytime soon, not even taking the nightmares into account.

He continues to hit the metal to form it into a blade without much thought, relying on muscle memory. Hitting the metal to release the stress that the day brought him.

**Clank** _. _

_ Grian waits next to the portal nervously. Most of the Hermits were waiting with him talking excitedly with each other. He's always worried he might have traveled through the End one too many times or someone will catch onto something more. He could never thank Xisuma enough for allowing him to join this family but he is always worried his past will come back to haunt him. _

_ All of a sudden, the portal starts swirling around even more to show someone coming through. They all quiet down as Xisuma steps through the portal. _

_ The way X refuses to look Grian in the eyes tells him everything. He won't like whatever news Xisuma has.  _

_ "So… anything important happened at your meeting?" Stress asks unaware of the tension in the air. _

_ "... There has been a concern with the health of a group of people called Wynncraft." _

**Clank** _. _

_ "Surely you don't mean…" Mumbo starts with a realization on his face. He was the one who recommended Grian to join their world so he got pulled into the investigation of the Enderknights. _

_ "If they are having health concerns, the admins should let the Wynnians deal with it themselves. How do you know they even have problems?" Grian adds. He knows that Xisuma is referring to the case about the other Enderknights and himself. The air got thick and everyone got silent. _

_ "Grian… two of them simultaneously fainted." _

**Clank.**

_ Grian's eyes widen with realization. The others are also being affected by whatever is happening to the End. "Do you know why they fainted?" Grian asks with concern. _

_ "No. It was taken to the admins because there was no cause as to why it happened in the first place. We believe it might be connected to a larger problem that happened at the same time." Xisuma looks over everyone before continuing, "there have been problems happening in the End that are causing major concern of perma-death. Everyone needs to avoid going to the End unless there is an absolute necessity. If you do need to go, please let me know." _

_ "That still does not excuse the admins from going behind the Wynnians backs. Again." Grian said only to be met with silence. _

**Clank.**

_ "What is Wynncraft?" someone asked quietly. Grian looks over to the direction the question came from to see Beef. Grian stares at the ground wishing he could disappear. _

_ "It is a world without admins but has its own types of magic. The world is filled with people native to it." Grian faintly hears X explain.  _ They are so much more than that. They are the only ones not from  A … the only ones other than the others that understand who they are.

**Clank.**

_ Grian could practically feel the eyes of those who were in the last season on him. They all saw and knew what happened between the two. A couple of them had an idea of what happened but never actually saw it. They never learned the full story of what took place. _

_ Grian wished he could just leave. He didn't want to deal with this right now. Not with everything that's going on. _

**Clank.**

_ A sparkling wide eyes man linked together two pieces to a story he heard last year. "Wait, isn't Grian one of those people from Wynncraft?" Bdubs asks. The silence finally broke with the question as angry shouts filled the air.  _

**Clank.**

_ Grian grabs out rockets and flies off ignoring the people called out to him. _

**Clank.**

_ He doesn't deserve to be called a Wynnian. _

**Clank.**

_ They deserve better than someone like him. _

**Clank.**

_ He  _ failed _ his own world. _

**Thunk…**

Grian yelps as he feels a sharp pain in his hand and throws his hammer across the cave. He looks down to see his hand red from where he hit it. His hand will be bruised for a while. He picks up the hammer and throws it into an open chest.

Walking back to the anvil, he sees the blade he was working on. He was going off muscle memory while building the blade so he could concentrate on making sense of what happened during the day.

Looking at the blade now, Grian wishes he did pay more attention. Maybe he should have done something other than blacksmithing. What laid on top of the anvil was too short to be a sword. It wasn't built correctly to be a spearhead or a top of a staff.

The now cold black iron laying on top of the anvil is in the shape of a knife. It wasn't just any type of knives either.

It was one of  _ his  _ knives.

Without a second thought, Grian grabbed the uncovered metal of the handle and threw it into a pit of lava in the corner of the cave.

He promised himself that he will  _ never  _ make a knife again. He disowns the craftsmanship of ever making any knife.  _ Especially  _ **_his_ ** _ knives. _

He walks over to a small pond of water away from the main work area and uses the water to wash off the black ash covering his arms. Once he gets most of the ash off, he picks up his sweater and puts it on as he walks over to a table. He sits down and puts his head in his hands.

Grian looks over everything laying out on the table. A small picture laying under some papers in the corner of his eye catches his attention. After grabbing it and looking at it, he knows exactly what the picture was. Three figures, all wearing the same glowing purple-black armor but completely different at the same time.

One of the people in the picture has been scribbled out beyond recognition with a layer of ink. The person scribbled out can faintly be seen wearing the armor entirely, including a helmet. A rabbit fur hat with ears can be faintly seen sitting on top of the helmet.

One of the other people in the picture is wearing similar armor but with his helmet off resting in the crook of his arm. While the armor has a purplish-blue glow, the helmet sits without the glow. He wears a blue and red pair of earmuffs even though it's obvious that it isn't cold outside when the picture was taken.

The last person in the picture was probably the weirdest of the three. He also has his helmet off but his helmet has what looks like horns on the side of it that have a red glow. The armor itself has much more of a reddish-purple glow compared to the blueish purple glow the others seem to have. The armor also has what looks like a specific design carved into it that glows the same red that the helmet does. A red glowing blue sword, identical to a sword that sits a few blocks away from Grian currently in a chest, sits passively on his back.

This was taken back around the time he became an Enderknight. Back before the fighting amongst the knights started. Back when Tauris was alive. Back when King Domrao was in power. This was all his fault. He should have noticed  _ his  _ plans sooner. If he did he could have stopped it all. Now, most of his friends were dead and the ones who are still alive are suffering the consequences.

He should have noticed sooner that something wasn't right. Martyn even mentioned feeling something wrong with the End. 

Grian glanced up at the clock to see the sun starting to rise. He had been here all night. Grian collects all the papers on the table and puts them in the closet chest to him. He plucks a few pieces of chorus fruit off a chorus plant and walks over to the edge of the cave where he can teleport through the wall with the fruit. 

It's going to be a long day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hoped you enjoyed. If you have any questions or comments please leave a comment.


	8. Someone's Sus (and It Ain't the Sheep)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have had writers block on this chapter for weeks until a few days ago when I wrote most of this chapter. I am really sorry it took me so long.  
> You might have noticed that I put this in a series and there is also one other thing in that series. The other book is kinda like notes/info/lore on how things work or people or whatever. I will probably start making author's notes chapters to let you know I'm still alive if I take a while to make the next chapter. The first chapter is a copy of the first in this book (that might end up getting deleted now there is a book dedicated to that type of thing) and the second is a character study on Grian. Just a warning that for the most part it will be updated by requests from comments so people like you so if you don't ask, it probably won't get answered. Think of the book as my own personal commentary and behind the scenes of my book.  
> For anyone who wants more Technoblade, you got your wish in this chapter.  
> Enjoy the chapter!

"Are you doin' ok lov?" Stress asks while she walks over after dropping off a few shulkers of mycelium in the storage of the secret resistance base. Grian, who is sitting at the table in the center of the base groans.

He knows he isn't. He hasn't been doing 'okay' in years. With everything that's been happening recently, he has been doing less 'okay'. After hearing the news of the Admin meeting, he hasn't been sleeping and has been trying to find anything and everything to do otherwise. He has been building farms, working on the resistance base, making sure no one finds the base, breeding sheep, making secret agent costumes for said sheep. He would joke and say that he at least hasn't gone as far to watch sugar cane grow but, he would be lying.

"Yes," he says while standing up and stretching, "I am good Stress. You do not need to worry about me." Stress didn't say anything back. She only gives him a look telling him that she doesn't believe him but, won't talk about it more.

Stress walks into the bubble elevator leaving the base quiet as Grian sits back down in the chair. Everyone in the world knows he isn't doing well after what happened during the admin meeting. The silence doesn't last long when Ren comes dropping onto the table scaring Grian into jumping out of his chair.

"Ready to release a bunch of mooshrooms and sheep into the shopping district?" That's not right. Grian knows they planned on doing it on Wednesday that week. There were still  three two… one? day left until then. Right?

"... I thought we planned on doing it on Wednesday though?"

"... Grian, my man, it is Wednesday."  _ Oh… well… that is not…  _ "Have you been getting enough sleep?" Ren continues breaking Grian out of his stuttering thoughts. Straight to the point. Not asking the default 'I know something is wrong but am going to ask anyways' of 'are you okay', not asking what's wrong and most likely not getting an answer to it. A question that even if he doesn't need to say anything to tell Ren everything he needs to know. 

Before Grian could get a response ready, Ren cut in, "well, these beloved mushroomfide bovines and sheep won't get to the surface by themselves. We better hurry before anyone finds us putting them there." He hurries over to the animal-filled lab and Grian hurries right behind. 

* * *

Ren knew something was up with Grian. He'll have to talk about this later to Impulse. In their last world, when the three of them were hippies, they ended up learning a lot about each other. From what he understands, Mumbo and Iskall also know more about Grian than the rest of the server.

The four of them know more about his past than the rest of the server.

They also know Grian tries to choose what others know about him. The main reason they know more about him than others is because of how close they are to the blonde-haired man to see when he slips and reveals something he didn't mean to.

Ren also knows that as close the Sahara boys are to each other, the three hippies ended up much closer. The nights they spent in the RV camp around the campfire with Grian telling them something in his past and making them promise to never tell anyone, to the nights where he would wake up in the middle of the night to hear Grian screaming from a nightmare. Ren and Impulse had to force Grian to go to bed after refusing to sleep in fear of nightmares on multiple occasions.

The time that the three of them were hippies impacted how they interacted with each other from there on out. No one else knows that their relationship exists as much as it does, other than possibly the boys from area 77, Cub, and False. The three of them come from completely different worlds.

Impulse is sort of seen as the generic type of person in the worlds. A guy from hub world that went out into the worlds with his friends. Ren himself came from a world he heard was called Terrar. He doesn't remember the world as he moved to another one a few years after he was born. Ren had been born a wolf hybrid. 

Grian was a bit of an oddity. Starting with him coming from a world that not only isn't known, a world that only a few people have ever left from. Ren doesn't know if anyone not native to Wynncraft has ever been to the world. It's obvious that his world is one of the weirder worlds. Most worlds act the same unless something like admins or mods change it. A few worlds don't act the same as the other worlds and admins usually have little to no effect on the world. Ren isn't even sure if Grian is fully human. He smells like a human but, there is a scent of something else, he doesn't know if it's from being constantly exposed to… what the other is or if he is a hybrid of the species.

It's also obvious that he has been exposed to some type of foreign magic. The night he saw his scars is permanently burned into Ren's mind. The scars that cover his chest aren't ones on someone who's living. They also aren't supposed to glow. As far as Ren knows, only he and Impulse know about the scars. They also know not to ask where they're from.

He knows that Grian knows more about what's really happening. Ren and Impulse made a silent agreement back then to observe, but not ask. Recently he's seen the phantoms that fly around his mansion in the middle of the night. He's seen how the faint purple glow that you don't notice unless you know it's there has at times been more dim. As much as Ren would want to make Grian sit down and talk to him about what's wrong, he knows that will get nowhere.

* * *

This was not X's day. He has been semi-regularly attending meetings to discuss the current problems with the Wynnians and the End. From talking to Scott and Logic, their Wynnians don't know the reason for the meetings. 

He can't say he kept Grian in the dark. He learned his lesson on it the first time around. The two of them meet up every week for Xisuma to tell Grian about the meetings.

Usually, the meetings are set up in advance but, this meeting was called a few hours ago as being an emergency. Walking into the meeting room he notices it was filled with a few Mojang admins, Logic and Scott sitting down quietly talking to each other, Dream sitting still ignoring any attempts the former two make for him to join in their conversation, and… a small random group of people.

"I thought the purpose of exclusive meetings is that it's  _ exclusive _ on who is a part of them. Unless there was some contest that they won to be a part of one of these meetings and if that's the case, what type of nerd would sign up for it?" Technoblade states as he walks through the door shortly after Xisuma. His neutral expression is only slightly broken by the hint of annoyance and confusion in his eyes.

"Under normal circumstances, yes, but as they are the reason for this unplanned meeting, they are allowed to be here," one of the admins says.

"We need to wait for the rest of the participants to join before we explain everything," another says. After a few minutes Fit comes in and we all wait for one of the admins to start only… they don't. Another few minutes pass until three people walk into the room. Xisuma vaguely recognizes them as other admins.

"We are all here. Xisuma Void, Scott Major, Logical Geek, meat your replacements." The room gets quiet and the air gets thick.

"WHAT," Scott shouts as he hits his hand on the table and forcibly stands up causing his chair to fall over. "You can't do that. Morally and legally. There are rules set in place that are meant to protect…"

"There are also rules in place to override those rules if we see it necessary." One of the Mojang admins interrupts.

"And in what way is it necessary," Logic asks with shock as he can't fully grasp what happened.

"We had new information come to light about the quote on quote "Wynnians" and have deemed them as being dangerous. The three of you are connected personally with one of them making you unreliable and bias."

"We will also be letting go of Techno Blade and Fit Emce from being a part of these meetings.

"Heehh?! Why are we leaving while Dream stays."

"He was the one who introduced us to this group called the Enderknights. They have been freely giving us the information we need."

"So we are believing a group of people that came from nowhere claiming to be a fairytale story over the people we have known for months, and in some cases, years, who we got information f ok by watching and finding the clues ourselves. You are believing a group of crazy people's testimonials over the evidence we've collected." Fit points out.

"Fairytale? Enderknights?" Questions Logic

"There are legends about a group of warriors who live in the End. They are only really known in worlds filled with native people. Even then, not a lot of people know it. I personally know it because I enjoy reading mythology and ended up coming across it in some random world's legends." Techno explains.

"Never thought I'd see the day where people started to believe bedtime stories over what has actually been proven true." Fit adds on.

But what do we know is true? We know what they want us to know, what they want us to see them as."

"We know the traitors personally. Our Emperor had been personally betrayed by one of you so-called 'friends' who had even killed his own two closest friends," one of the Enderknights says, bringing attention to the group. Looking closer, Xisuma notices that they are all wearing a black cloak with a hood and half masks that are all different. Some are wooden or leather, while some are metal. All the masks vary in color and design.

"The same person who was in charge of the rebellion against our Emperor. One of our clans betrayed the rest of us hundreds of years ago. When we welcomed them back to our lands after exiling them for their betrayal, they betrayed us again by giving our most valuable artifacts to the predecessors of those traitors. They ran off into your worlds with them." Another Enderknight said. This one was obviously not human with his grey skin and glowing purple eyes seen through the mask

"Forgive me for not believing your… friends but the accusations they are making are a bit…" Logic starts before getting interrupted by Techno.

"This is ridiculous. Are you even hearing what they are saying?" He turns to look at Dream who had been sitting quietly the entire time. "You know Dream, I would have thought someone like you wouldn't associate with crazy people. I would have at least thought you would have given your opinion on the matter. And another thing, how come you're the only one of us that's staying?" 

"He was the one who brought the Enderknights to us. He also is the only one who hasn't been influenced by the subjects of interest." One of the Mojang admins replies. "On that topic," he turns to the three admins, "we need to relinquish your control over your servers."

Xisuma couldn't believe what's happening. The rules in place are meant to protect against forced admin changes. Especially on whitelisted servers. The only way to get out of it that he can think of is if they weren't a part of the council.  _ Wait _ …

"What if we don't," Xisuma says, causing everyone in the room to stare at him in shock at what he's implying.

"You know if you do that… you will be rogue and your server will be disconnected." One of the Mojang admins says cautiously.

"I know."

"We'll give you 24 hours before your server gets disconnected."

"You can disconnect my servers too," Scott said. Being over X-Life and MCC will heavily impact the two worlds. Not that it would be impossible to host an event like the Championship, but it would become extremely difficult and might even prevent the usual participants from traveling to the world.

"Mine too," Logic stated.

"Fine, from this moment onward admins Xisuma Void, Logical Geek, and Scott Major are no longer a part of the council of admins and will be considered lone and rogue admins. The worlds of Hermitcraft, X-Life, Minecraft Championship, and Legacy will be disconnected from the portal system." 

The meeting shortly ended after the outbursts from the three admins. The three and the two representatives walk out of the room towards the portal.

"I'll talk to Hausemaster to allow travel between our two worlds. 2B2T has never been one to be fully a part of the council. Our relationship with it has always been very unstable, this might be what causes us to separate from them." Fit tells them before entering the portal.

"... Something's wrong with Dream. I made a promise to help some people in the world so I can't just up and leave the mess of a world. I do think we will be allowed to travel and be a part of the Championship though. Most of the Wynnians take part in it and with no access to your worlds, it could be the only way they can truly get in contact with them." Techno says in his monotone voice.

Xisuma was about to walk into the portal before a hand on his shoulder stops him. Turning around the other two admins have concern filling their face. "I know our worlds are all whitelisted but," Logical starts, "I think we should keep our worlds open between each other. Everyone in our worlds will be, for the most part, locked out of most of the worlds. This would give them a chance to at least travel between a few worlds."

Xisuma glances over to Scott and sees the same look he has on the proposition.

* * *

"Ready to release our secret agents and this island's natural inhabitants into the wild?" Ren asks standing next to the lever ready to pull it down.

Grian looks over to the pen of sheep and the glass enclosure of mooshrooms. It hits him what was missing. "Wait," Grian says while heading over to a chest on the edge of the room. He opens it to pull out suits and sunglasses. "We need to put outfits on our agents."

Ren bursts out laughing before grabbing the sunglasses.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hoped you have enjoyed.  
> Please check out the other book if you want to know more about the book and the workings in it.  
> I'll try not to have such a long pause between my next chapter.  
> Please leave comments and questions.


	9. A Door Shuts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Who was expecting a new chapter so soon? I wasn't.   
> I also wasn't expecting this chapter to be so long but, here we are.  
> I have a lot of big projects due in these next couple of weeks so please don't expect the next chapter to be so soon.  
> I know I mentioned this a while ago back in the prologue but, there are still Easter eggs littered around in the chapters. Try to see if you can find any.  
> A lot of lore is in this chapter.  
> I hope you enjoy.

When Grian got a notification on his communicator and saw Xisuma left a message right after he came back from his meeting, he knew nothing good could come from it.

<Xisumavoid>Meeting in the shopping district in front of the town hall. Now. Mandatory attendance and very time-sensitive.

Xisuma leaving for a last-minute meeting then coming back and is now calling a mandatory meeting? Not a good sign. Most of the time when X has one of the admin meetings, the two of them schedule a time they can both talk and leave it open for anyone else that wants to come.

Grian looks up from his communicator to look at Ren who was standing next to them after they just filled the cowmmercial district with sheep and mooshrooms.

Ren looked just as confused and worried as Grian felt. The two rushed over to the water elevator and hurried out of the ocean, flying towards the town hall. A few Hermits other than Xisuma were already there. Xisuma was staring down at his communicator writing into it, adding onto the continuous beeping coming from the communicators. 

"Hey X what is…" Grian starts before he gets interrupted.

"Not right now Grian. I'm waiting for everyone to get here. It's too important for anyone to miss."

Grian looks over to Ren to see his take on the situation only to get a shrug. At least he isn't the only one who has no idea what's happening. The two resistance members walk over to where the other Hermits who have arrived were. Scar was looking out into the fields of sheep muttering something about wolves with Bdubs next to him nodding along, Cub shearing the mushrooms off the back of a mooshroom making their red hide fade into brown, and Tango talking to Impulse and Zedaph. Slowly more Hermits arrive until XB arrives after flying from his base. 

At some point during the waiting Xisuma started pacing ignoring any attempts to talk to him.

"Shashwammy?" Keralis said, getting X's attention.

X rubbed his hand on the back of his helmet. "Everyone here? Good. As many of you know, I was just at a meeting in Hub. The meeting… did not go as expected. They were wanting the two of the other admins and myself to give up admin rights to our worlds."

There was an uproar at that. Everyone knows that admins can have a lot of control over their world. Hermitcraft being a multiplayer whitelisted world being even more so. If Xisuma were to lose being the admin over Hermitcraft, whoever took the position would have full control over who can join the world.

"We didn't lose it though," he continued causing everyone to go quiet

"We were able to keep it by… leaving the council."

"X doesn't that mean," Mumbo starts.

Xisuma nods, "we are getting disconnected from the portals. We were given 24 hours before the disconnect. This is why we're having this meeting. We aren't sure when or if we will be reconnected or if we can find a buffer world to travel through to get to their connection."

"So… this might be the last time we can travel to Hub," Cleo said. Hub world is the central point of the council with the portals there regulated by it. Unlike the other worlds, if you aren't part of the council, you won't be getting into the world. "I don't know if I can stay here until we might join back X."

This shocked everyone. This could potentially mean that they won't ever see Cleo again. Grian looked over at X expecting some resistance only to see a look of acceptance.

"I was expecting that might be the case with some of you. I know not everyone here just lives here, some to the point that when they come here it's mostly just visiting. This is why we're having a meeting. No one is obligated to stay if they want to leave."

X's eyes meet Grian's for a short second giving him everything he needs to know at the moment. There's more to the situation he doesn't want to tell the rest. Whether that's good or bad for Grian has yet to be determined. He doesn't have his hopes high though. This conversation between the two won't have as open of an invitation to the others. If it was he would have said it here. That almost guarantees that whatever it will be about won't be good.

"Wait, X, why were they trying to take over as admin. Aren't their rules to prevent that unless there is an emergency?" Etho questioned. 

Xisuma slightly shifts around on his feet almost unnoticeably unless you know there is more going on than what appears.  _ This is what he is hiding from the others,  _ Grian thought to himself only to get another realization.  _ Everything that is happening was because of me. _

"Well, we weren't given much information. The meeting was mostly focused on the fact that they were removing most of the people who were originally on it and we're trying to change the admins of the worlds. The one person of the original group who didn't get removed, Dream, apparently found something to help explain the problem further. What he found though… has everyone questioning the legitimacy of it. Apparently, a group that calls themselves 'Enderknights' had some sort of information that threw out all the information we gathered recently and from a few years ago."

_ What _ . Grian was an Enderknight along with the five others. He  _ saw  _ what happened to the rest of the knights. He cried with the corpses of many of his friends in his arms after they slowly bleed to death from some sort of blade. He watched as the person standing next to him got impaled by an arrow in the back of his head as they took their helmet off for a minute of fresh air. No Enderknight but the six of them survived. Pearl and Jimmy were the only two in the End that was left in the End with Grian when the war ended. The two searched all of Ardonia for any other knights only finding the other three.

The only other knights they found were the ones who became watchers. The Enderknights that became watchers ended up losing the connection they had to the End. The once light obsidian armor that glows as they wear it became heavy and dull.

"They're just myths though," Jevin commented. 

"The what?" Mumbo questioned. 

"Oh, I think I know the story. Aren't they Endermen who became knights to protect the End?" Cleo asked.

No, I heard they were people who were born in the End. Their parents moved to the End and being born there somehow affected them by giving them things like enhanced speed or strength. Some get endermen- _ like  _ abilities but they aren't endermen." Jevin corrected.

"So… they are what?" Mumbo asked.

Cleo and Jevin looked at each other for a minute before giving Mumbo a shrug and Jevin continues saying, "They aren't a super well-known myth, and the worlds that do have myths about them can be very different from each other."

"They aren't real though." Etho queried.

"That's usually the point of myths so, ye…"

" _ No, _ " Grian cut Jevin off. The moment he spoke everyone looked at him. Everyone had a confused or flabbergasted look on their face. X had some type of mixture between shock, fear, and worry in his eyes. "While I guess in most worlds they are seen as myths or stories to tell kids when they go to bed, to the people of Wynncraft  _ they are real. _ They are a part of our history books. While it is true they almost fell into myths after they had not been seen for about 100 to 200 years, they appeared in the End less than 100 years ago confirming their existence. They are as real as the End itself."

"The admins said that the group of Enderknights that were found claims…"

"Xisuma, whoever the council found claiming to be Enderknights are lying." He said shutting down anything the found group could say. "The Enderknights come from their own world that had their own problems. When they returned after they disappeared, we were told about a war that killed them all. 

"The new Enderknights were formed about a hundred years later when another war started that needed them. They said that they re-found Wynncraft when the Enderqueen at the time found old books and journals talking about Wynncraft. The problem with this new group is that the Enderknights ended up having a civil war that ended about 5 years ago. This was discovered when the last remaining knight came into Wynncraft dying.

"While the side that the true Enderknights were on was completely decimated, the other side still had many people alive. The war ended with neither side won because both sides lost their king and their emperor. The other side ended up losing abilities they had while they were Enderknights."

"Are you sure none survived Grian?" Xisuma asked with concern still filling his eyes.

"I cannot say it is impossible for there to be others but the chances of there being any are slim to none. I don't think I can accept their return unless I see them wear their obsidian armor." 

After mentioning obsidian armor, the looks that everyone had were of disbelief. Grian doesn't blame them for not believing. The weapons used in most worlds were created by crafting tables and not forged. There is a clear difference in quality and effort put into the sword.

Swords created by forging can be so unique to the point that the blacksmith might put a bit of redstone into their iron to give the sword a red tint and/or make it reactive to redstone. Diamond in itself is hard to work with making only exports willing to try to forge them. Obsidian is near impossible. Only one person is known to be able to forge obsidian, the master of the Voltaris clan, the student of the previous Ardoni who forged obsidian armor, and the one who gave the current the song needed to be able to.

The one who...  _ no, do not think about it. It is not part of my life anymore. I do not want to hurt him more than I already have. I broke his heart when I died. To him all those years were a waste,  _ Grian thought _. _

"How is that possible? Not that wearing obsidian armor wouldn't be Omega cool but wouldn't it be like having turtle master on all the time?" Iskall asked.

"I think that is one of the abilities they have. The armor always has some type of a glow to it and they move around in it like it isn't any heavier than leather armor." More and more questions started to get asked, a lot of them Grian had to play being naive. Grian looked over to Ren with a look of desperation and Ren seemed to understand it.

"Hey guys, while Grian does know a bit about these people, he doesn't know everything. Anyway, isn't there something more important we should be focusing on, like the fact that the world will be disconnected?" Ren said to take the focus off the current conversation back to the reason why they were meeting in the first place.  _ Thank you, Ren. _

"Yes, I agree with Ren. No one's obligated to stay in the world. Just know that I'll miss you if you decide to leave. I never meant to make you choose. Please remember though, no matter what you choose, there might be no way to take it back."

No one moved as if even the slightest motion would make it a reality. After a few minutes, a sigh is heard causing everyone to look over at Cleo. "I don't think anyone is really surprised that I'm going after what I said earlier. I… I really do love you guys but, I'm only ever here part of my time. The life that I have back in SHL and Hub isn't something I can just walk away from. Not saying my life here isn't something that I can't walk away from but…"

"Sometimes we are forced to close a door and choose which side of the door we stand on when it closes. We can go into any of the doors within the side that we chose but we are never allowed back through the original. We can never see the doors the other side had to offer." Joe said, giving his support as an analogy of the situation.

Cleo's eyes start tearing up, "thanks Joe, I guess." She turns to everyone else, "guys, since I won't be around to keep Joe in line, I give you guys full permission to break his legs if he does something stupid."

Everyone gives a sad chuckle at that. Cleo slowly starts walking towards the portal only to get joined by TFC who turns to look at everyone and gives a small nod giving them all they need to know. Wels slowly walks towards the portal before turning back to everyone else.

"I really will miss all of you but, being asleep for all those months made me not want to get stuck here. I've been mostly gone the whole time I have been here too." Wels explains. Jevin walks up saying he's leaving too. Some muttering can be heard by everyone somewhere inside the cluster of Hermits.

Just as they were able to leave, another voice calls out to stop them, "wait!" Everyone turns to see Stress running towards the group. "I'm gonna leave too." This shocked everyone, the rest of the people leaving made sense, but Stress? Grian can see her eyes are filled with tears, sadness, and a bit of determination. "I lov all of you very much. You have been family for years. I don't think I'm supposed to stay though. My heart feels like it's split in half, half wanting to stay and half knowing I'm supposed to leave." Stress starts crying before she continues, "maybe I can find a way to reopen some kind of connection."

"Can you guys tell Doc what happened? And Hypno too. Hypno should be in his private world Ozone but, Doc is still MIA. The world will probably disconnect by the time you find them so unfortunately, they can't do much about their choice." Xisuma said. The leaving Hermits nod their heads to finding the others and give one last wave before leaving through the portal.

"I know this decision is hard to make so if any of you decide in a few hours you are going to leave too, no one will hold it against you. If you have other people who you need to say goodbye too you should have enough time to do so. The other two admins and I have some things we need to take care of before we get disconnected so I'm going to take my leave." Xisuma quickly gives Grian a glance to know this is when they will be talking before putting out his rockets and shoots into the air towards his base.

Grian looks around at all the remaining Hermits to see a silent resolve in their faces. None of them make any move towards the portal. None of them are leaving. He decides to break the silence, "I am staying. This place, it is my home." The others nod before they start walking off back to what they were doing before or going to say their goodbyes to people outside the server.

Grian takes out his rockets and flies towards his base. He has a feeling that the fact that X has been trying to keep the extra information a secret, flying directly to his base which is far to the north from his own would raise some suspension and possibly others following. After getting a good way away from the shopping district and not seeing anyone flying around him over the ocean, Grian takes off his armor, minus elytra, and puts it in his inventory while also grabbing an invisibility potion. He drinks the potion while changing his direction from southwest to northwest.

After a few minutes, he reaches X's base and finds him inside one of his towers. "Hey Grian," Xisuma quietly says as he lands into the open hanger.

"There is something more that you did not tell us."

"I know you don't like talking about your past," Grian tensed up at those words.  _ No, he is not suggesting,  _ "I'm not going to force you to tell me anything. I think you already know the full reason why they want control over the servers is so they can watch you guys under a closer eye. At the meeting, those 'Enderknights' were there and they heavily implied that you and your friends are thieves, liars, and murderers. One said something about somehow stealing some artifact from their clan, something about killing the Emperor's two closest friends…"

"Say that last part again," the invisibility potion had started losing its effect making Grian at this point, mostly visible and showing shock and a bit of fear in his wide blue eyes and slightly shaking body 

"That… one of you guys killed the Emperor's two closest friends?"

" _ Those are not Enderknights."  _ Grian breathed starting to shake so much that he had to sit on the ground. Xisuma sat next to him staring at him through the mask. This was getting too much for him.  _ No! He is… _

Xisuma spoke before he could think more on the matter, "wha- what do you mean they aren't? What are they then?"

"Were they wearing obsidian armor?" He says referring back to the description he game earlier.

"No…"

"Were they wearing masks?"

"How did you know!?"

"What did…"

"Grian!" Xisuma shouted causing Grian to flinch. X sighed after the rapid-fire questions ended. "Take it slowly, who are they?"

Grian looked down knowing he can't avoid it. "Some of them can easily fool the people who even know everything about the Enderknights as they had once lived it. None of them are Enderknights now, and some never had been. They are the Watchers."

"You mentioned them before. They were the group of hackers that destroyed Evo."

Grian hesitated; telling X that the watchers are the ones that went against the Enderknights could link that back to Grian and the other Enderknights being Enderknights which would defeat the purpose of them hiding their status in the first place. It could lead back to Grian's old title.  _ You are not it anymore. The End saw that you failed when you had it and did the right thing by taking it.  _ A voice in Grian's head tells him. A smaller voice in his head probes at him saying,  _ but the Eye of Ender still takes you to the trials.  _

Xisuma took Grian's silence as a confirmation and just as he was about to continue talking, their communicators ring. Looking down Grian sees a message from Ren.

<Renthedog> Hey Grian, come to the shopping district

<GoodTimeWithScar> Anything I, the mayor, should be concerned about

<Renthedog> Nope, nothing whatsoever

<cubfan135> Suspicious 

"Well, I have to go. Thank you for telling me." Grian stands up and grabs his rockets. He pauses just before he starts to fly off. "Thank you for not telling the others everything too. I know it is not much, especially because of how closed off I am, but I really appreciate it."

"No problem Grian. You shouldn't keep Ren waiting though I expect not to go to the Cowmmercial district to see it covered with mycelium."

Grian gives a dramatic gasp, "I would  _ never.  _ Where did you hear such ridiculous accusations about me. No promises though." Grian takes a step back off the ledge while activating his elytra and rocket. He flies over to Stress's potion shop to travel through the shulker box that is the entrance to the secret base. When he gets down he sees Ren at the table with Impulse and Etho. On the floor next to Ren is a pile of sleeping bags, blankets, and pillows. 

"Mandatory mycelium hippie sleepover/campout Grian. No getting out of it." Ren said as he pulls Grian over to the group.

"But what if I wanted a good night's rest in my mansion," he slightly complains.

Impulse huffed, "ya, as if you're actually going to sleep."

"Fine."

They started setting up the sleeping bags as it was already late at night. Etho was mostly quiet as he watched the three ex-hippies, writing notes in his book. After a while, he put the book down and started to join in the conversation more.

"I am telling you! Herobrine does exist! I have seen him!" Grian defended as he sat on his sleeping bag. Impulse lets out a quiet 'here we go again' from his sleeping bag that is ignored by the rest of the room.

"It was a trick of the light Grian. Both Impulse and I were there."

"Ya, over the speaker in my communicator while you were down in some mines."

"Grian, repeat after me," Etho said as he stared at Grian with his heterochromatic eyes. " _ He. _ "

"Herobrine." Etho sighs as Grian smirks at him.

"Doesn't."

"Does."

"... Doesn't."

"Does."

*Sigh* "Not."

"Definitely."

"Wha… Grian that isn't anything close to what I actually said."

"... Well Herobrine does, does definitely exist. That at least makes more sense than, ' _ he  _ doesn't doesn't not exist'. I cannot tell if you do or do not think he exists."

Everyone starts laughing before Ren spoke up, "we should probably get some shut-eye guys."

Grian got in his sleeping bag while one of the others got the light bringing them down to just above the limit that mobs can spawn.

Grian lays there thinking how this was his fault. If he never became a Hermit, no. Then wherever he did end up would probably be having the same problems. If only he died during that battle like he was supposed to. Well, he was supposed to but he got saved. He wouldn't want to hurt the others by sacrificing what they gave him.  _ I never deserved the armor made for me after Xelqua hatched.  _ The obsidian armor that was specifically forged for him. Not armor passed down by the older generations. Armor that Grian never did justice. Armor that the forger did everything in his power to perfect. The one who taught him his skills. One last thought passed through Grian's head before he finally fell asleep.

_ I hope I will have made you proud by the time I meet Ky'Thalleous and Ky'Galleous. _

_ I hope I can make you proud, Master Senn. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, random question, has anyone else notice how underwhelming the actual watchers are to the ones in the fandom and in fanfics? The ones in the fandom are usually depicted as winged beings from/live in the End that typically wear purple robes and almost always wear a white, upper-half face mask. These beings contain magic equal to, or stronger than admin magic.  
> In actuality, Grian himself had talked about how the watchers are basically a representation of the viewers in a Spawn Chunks podcast last season. Imagine a story with these types of watchers. Maybe watcher magic is a very common magic that most people have and is split into two different types, viewer and streamer/youtuber. Maybe have it so the magic allows the streamer/youtuber type to show others what they see and hear. The viewers would obviously be the ones who use their magic to see what the streamer/youtuber is doing. Maybe that's are an extension to this magic.  
> Please leave any comments or questions you have.


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